For the second time, Auburn's arms were around her, trapping her. This time, he didn't have any shackles or a collar drenched in wolfsbane, but it hardly mattered. Layla still couldn't break free of his grasp. She could fight off a Beta, maybe even three at once, but there was no chance of her taking on an Alpha.
She struggled against him, but it didn't even seem to faze Auburn. He simply held on to her tightly, staring at Henry.
"Henry," Auburn greeted. "So nice of you to join us. I think you destroyed some of my property though, and possibly even maimed some of my wolves."
Layla stopped squirming for a bit as she heard Auburn address Henry. He seemed almost familial in the way that he spoke to him. Did they know each other more than Auburn had told her? Had they been part of the same pack once?
Henry snarled, seeing Layla in his hands.
"Burn," Henry greeted. "That's rich of you to talk about me harming your wolves when you came into my territory and kidnapped my guest"
Layla looked to Henry in shock as he spoke to Auburn using his nickname. They definitely knew each other more than just as rival packs. Layla was very confused.
This wasn't how the packs in Silva lived. Their packs made alliances, sure, but nothing like this. At the end of the day, a wolf's loyalty had to be to its own pack, first and above everything else.
"Ah," Burn said. "Fair point. Though, it's not really your territory, is it? Your dad's still alive from what I gather, and he hasn't forbidden me from his territory"
Layla glanced up to Auburn as he spoke about Henry's father. It was almost like there was a slight fondness for him, a longing for the old man like he had known Henry's father too.
"He outcast your entire family," Henry said,
"after your parents' betrayal."
Maybe they were from the same pack. Maybe the way the wolves behaved in Lunavia wasn't all that different from the way they behaved in Silva Forest. Maybe in the end, even with friendships in place, they had put their packs first.
A wolf could be friends, cooperate, and even have alliances with other wolves. But they normally ended because something would have to be given preference over another.
"Your side of the story," Burn told him simply.
"That's not the story that's passed through Bloodmoon."
Two separate packs. They had always been two separate packs, just allied between them. Layla wondered what happened. Just as Auburn said, she had a feeling that she would get two completely different stories depending on which pack's wolves she asked.
It didn't matter. It wasn't her place to know what had happened. She just wished that Auburn would let her go.
"You know your parents yourself," Henry said, shaking his head. "You know what they did to you. Would you believe their story here?"
Layla felt a bit of emotion settle in her stomach as Henry spoke. What did he mean? What had Auburn's parents done to him that he should know not to trust their word?
She saw a flicker of something across Auburn's face, and she knew that Henry had hit a soft spot. Suddenly, Auburn wasn't only the monster that Layla had seen him be any longer. Suddenly, there was a human
side to the monster, just like they had human sides to their wolves.
She wondered what had happened to him to make him the Alpha that he was where his pack obeyed him solely out of fear. Was that what Henry meant? Was that how his father had ruled his pack before Auburn?
"What other choice do I have?" Auburn asked, his voice softer. "You're inheriting from your father, and I have to inherit from mine. I can't exactly just walk away from everything, not when it's all that I have. Unfortunately, I don't have a father that will cater to my every whim and give me everything I asked for."
Auburn's words reeked of jealousy. Layla felt her hackles rise against it. She felt for Henry at that moment. How many times, and how many wolves, had told her that she was lucky to be born an Omega? Wolves would want to mate with her always, and she would have the strongest wolves fighting for her. How many times had she heard the same jealousy that coated Auburn's words now directed at her?
"You know that's not what it's like," Henry objected. "You know that's nowhere near the truth."
"Come now," Auburn said, pulling Layla against him as she squirmed. "Do you think that's the case? When we were kids, didn't you get everything that you asked for? Didn't my father make me have to work to get them?"
Henry shook his head, huffing. Layla understood. Auburn thought that everything just came easy to Henry, the way the wolves in Silva Forest had thought that everything had just come easy to Layla. But they made assumptions without knowing the truth of anything.
"That was unfair to you," Henry said. "It didn't mean that I just got everything I asked for. My parents cared for me and raised me like I was a responsibility of theirs, and someone they loved. Your parents treated you as a burden, but that doesn't, in any way, mean that I was just given a handout. I worked just as hard as you did for everything I have. Your parents just made you kill for dinner when you were three. That was wrong."
Layla heard as Henry tried to explain everything to Auburn. She had tried to explain to the wolves of her pack, time and again, that it wasn't what they thought. She tried to tell them that life didn't fall at her feet just because she was an Omega.
She knew that with them, and like with Auburn now, those words were doing little more than falling on deaf ears. They believed what they wanted to, and they heard what they wanted to.
"It made me stronger," Auburn snarled. "And you became weaker."
Layla knew that this wouldn't continue forever and had to get away. She went soft and limp in his grasp, pretending to give up the fight. She waited until Auburn relaxed his grasp on her.
She then moved quickly, elbowing him in the stomach. Auburn lessened his grip on her in shock. She quickly ran over to Henry's side, slipping behind him.
Auburn seemed to realize what happened. In a second, he lunged toward them, still in human form.
That was reckless. Layla had the presence of mind to think. Alphas fought in wolf form. That was when they were strongest, not as humans attacking each other. Before Auburn had even crossed to them, Henry quickly lifted the rifle at his side and shot him.
Auburn was thrown back from the force of the blast. Layla saw that Henry had hit him in the shoulder.
"Run," Henry told her, pushing her down one of the corridors. "The bullets are silver and coated in wolfsbane, but he'll recover fast. He's used to those elements already."
Silver and wolfsbane were two of the strongest substances that could be used against a wolf. Henry himself had taken days to recover after it was used on his wounds. Layla couldn't imagine the hell that Auburn must have gone through if those two elements were something that he could just get up from and move on.
"Through this way," Henry told her as he pulled her down one of the other corridors.
Things were starting to look a little familiar to Layla. She remembered these walls from when she had tried to make her escape the day before. Henry moved with purpose, sure of where he was going.
There was no doubting it now. Henry knew his way around the place. He had been here before.
Layla tried not to think too much about it. After all, she had known that Henry was part of the gangs of Lunavia. She just hadn't thought of what that meant. Now, she had a better understanding of it. She struggled to think that Henry was a part of something like this, something that could kidnap her and keep her hostage.
She shook her head. She had to focus. She glanced around, keeping her nose to the air as they ran, trying to keep a watch for any other wolves that might attack them ... Or Auburn.
After another few moments of running, twisting, and turning, Henry brought her back to the exit she had nearly gotten out of last time. The wooden door had been
blasted to splinters. He pulled her through the wreckage.
Layla felt the sunshine on her skin as clean air filled her senses for the first time in a while.
She was out. She was free and safe.